Friday, 27 July 2007

The first in a series - This one is a mixed bag with something for everyone. With the football (or soccer, as you strange people in USA call it) season still not started yet, I’m suffering from withdrawal symptoms from watching my beloved Newcastle United (Toon, Toon, Black N White Army!), so I find myself listening to a lot more music at the moment. It fills the void nicely, and aswell as getting new material, I’ve recently been scouring through my older Cds and listening to them again.

I’ve mentioned ‘Son Records’ before, when talking about both HKB Finn and DPF, but this time I’m going to throw up the compilation they brought out covering most of their major releases from 1998 to 2003. It has some true classic UK material on there, including tracks by Def Tex, a young and not yet P-Brothers-affiliated Cappo, Styly Cee and the once Out-Da-Ville member C-Mone.

Its solid throughout, and really does represent a good cross section of the lesser known hip-hop music from our country in that time period.

After that I’m going back to the year 2000, and one of the first ever releases on the now cult label and music collective that spawns obsessive fans, Definitive Jux. This was back before Def Jam tried to sue El-P for having a ‘similar’ name, and it was still Def Jux. The album, a bit like Son Records, is a small compilation showcasing artist from the album. Strange thing is, pretty much EVERYONE on this album has gone on to be huge rap stars in their own right. First you have Company Flow & El-Producto, who were already established before the creation of the label, releasing the brilliant ‘Funcrusher Plus’, instrumental album ‘Little Johnny Went To Hospital’ and a handful of great 12” singles. The CD may even act as one of the last recording done by Co Flow as a group because as far as I know they didn’t release any other material on Def Jux and Mr Len went on to do his own thing.

Aesop Rock makes what I assume is his first song for the label called ‘Kill Em All’ pre-empting my favourite album he has ever released ‘Labor Days’. Cannibal Ox, creators of one of the most ‘cult’ hip hop offerings there is ‘The Cold Vein’, contribute ‘Iron Galaxy’ & ‘Straight Off The D.I.C.’, which if I’m not mistaken feature on their album anyway. Finally we have RjD2, who has went mega in recent years with his production and solo albums. He contributes ‘Silver Fox’ to this tape.

The guest spots are kept to a minimum, with only Ill Bill of Non-Phixion fame dropping a verse on a Co. Flow track. This one mini-album paved the way for ALL Def Jux releases that followed, and showed that from day one El-P and his label had already planned out a particular sound for his record company, a sound that it still holds to this day.

Finally we have an album that I picked up over a year after it was initially released from a small Independent record shop in Nottingham for only a couple of quid. This one does have a smidgin of a connection to the last album, as its writer, rapper, producer Blueprint has ties with RjD2, being the co-star of group Soul Position with him. This album also features a guest spot for Aesop Rock on the song ‘Lo-Fi Funk’.

When I first heard ‘1988’ I loved the whole album’s integrity. Its produced entirely by Blueprint himself, and there are only two guest verses on the whole album, making it a very personal affair. In the liner notes Blueprint says ‘The year 1988 gave birth to lot of classic hip-hop records, so I named this album 1988 to pay tribute to those artist and records’. it’s the man’s own tribute to the golden era, complete with old school beats and a grass roots approach to production. On a side note, the song ‘Big Girls Need Love Too’ is hilarious.

Don’t forget that I have two blogs. This one is simply for the music, but ‘Gangsta Jackanory’ is my day-to-day blog that I update all the time. It covers my thoughts on everyday life, my opinions on sports, film reviews and general rants. Basically a place for me to vent or show my opinions on most things. I may even put some music related posts on there pertaining to other genres, in order to keep this blog strictly hip-hop. Anyway, there is a link above the C-Box and that site gets updated as much as this one, so if you’re here for the writing as much as the music, feel free to take a look at that aswell.

Sunday, 22 July 2007

Sometimes I feel like I'm a little out of touch with the general public when it comes to what is quality music and what isn't. While everyone else is busy listening to the new Lil' Wayne album I'm sitting in my room with People Under The Stairs' debut on blast and I'm happy as larry.

I grew up in the North-East of England and have lived there my whole life until the recent past, and the music of choice primarily seems to be either trance music or the obligatory R 'n' B. I don't really have a big problem listening to any musical genre, but I've always been the only one listening to my brand of hip-hop (I say mine...) and it has always puzzled me. People DO listen to hip-hop where I'm from, obviously. But it's not the same. Usually the farthest reaches delved seem to be maybe a Wu-Tang album or at best something by Mos Def and his like. Why is it only me from my region (that I know of, and I've lived there over twenty years) that digged deeper?

My parents are probably as far away from being fans of rap music as any parents could be. My mother loves music by Eva Cassidy and more accessible classical music, along with singer/songwriters such as James Blunt and James Morrison. My father has, for most of his life, been into what I'd call typical 'dad' music. He's a fan of prog-rock such as Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd, and dibble-dabbles with a little bit of straight rock music. The closest you get to a rap star in my house when I was growing up was a Marvin Gaye song here and there.

None of my friends listen to rap music. Not when I was growing up anyway. With a few exceptions, the only reason why a percentage of my mates listened to rap music was because I constantly played it around them and they grew fond of it through time. I would like to say that I put at least a dozen people onto rap, and I'd probably be right. But even at the best of times those people struggle to listen to anything more underground than a Redman CD. Not that there's anything wrong with that. This is not about me 'bashing' any non-hip-hop listeners, because it's all down to taste.

The point is, why do I listen to hip-hop??? Unlike many people reading this, I'm from a place in England where there is little in the way of cultural diversity, and you didn't hear rap music everyday. Yet from the age of about 11 I have been obsessed with this genre and I probably will be till I die. I honestly don't have the answer.

It just happened.

Ever since I heard Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince when I was as tall as a chair leg I've loved it, and my first ever album bought with my own money happened to be Busta Rhymes' debut 'The Coming' at the ripe old age of 10. My parents had never heard of him and I ran to them asking to get it with my saved up pocket money. They thought I'd picked up the wrong CD, or picked a CD at random. The truth was I'd heard 'Woo Hah! Got You All In Check' on MTV earlier that day and adored it.

I followed that up soon after with Cypress Hill's 'Temples of Boom', and listened to it all the time. At 11 years old I had no idea what B-Real meant by 'Everybody Must Get Stoned' or 'Spark Another Owl' but I recited the words from start to end anyway (no wonder I was grounded so much!). As a sidenote despite hearing this language I've never done drugs in my life and never will - and I lose respect for anyone that does (but back to the point).

By the time I was 14 when everyone was dancing about to the Backstreet Boys and Sonique (Don't know why I chose her, like!) I was listening to Company Flow in my room and developing a thirst for knowledge about the genre's history and origins. Swotty I know, but I was a bit of a strange kid.

This brings us to today, and I'm here writing a blog on the music I love, hopefully spreading knowledge to help other people, even ones that are 14 listening to Company Flow or something and wanting to know more, and I still don't know the answer.

Why do I love hip-hop?

I don't know, I just do.

Onto the D/Ls/ First up we have the EP Mummy's Little Soldier, released in 1999 by HuntKillBury Finn (quality name). Its a great piece up british 90s rap and has some great lyrics in it. Well worth a listen.

2nd up is the 2005 producer album from once-Fleapit member Second Son. This album has some astounding music in it, and is helped by the cream of british rappers in Jehst, Lewis Parker, Taskforce & a then not-yet-established Sway. Its a really solid album and shows that Second Son can REALLY make beats. His songs always benefit from having top quality drums in them, whether sampled breaks or produced. Its a great album from start to finish - the only drawback with it is that its not another Fleapit album!

As usual lets wrap this thing up with a vid. In anticipation (or salivation as it is in my case) of Camp Lo's new album, here's the vid to the classic song 'Coolie High' off their absolutely superb debut album 'Uptown Saturday Night'.

Monday, 16 July 2007

The Justus League are pretty highly thought of in underground rap circles as you know. Except for the odd criticism about their sound being ‘same old’, every album released from their collection of artists seems to get at least a bit of fanfare on the internet. From Little Brother, who are easily the most recognisable group from the camp, all the way down to the lesser known artists such as Joe Scudda or Median, they are doing alright for themselves.

One reason for their almost domination of the underground/mainstream crossover scene is because of their in-house production. In times gone by 9th Wonder was THE man. When ‘The Listening’ was released, some people were saying he was the new Pete Rock with his bass and soul heavy production ruling the boom boxes of many fans. But, in my humble opinion, 9th Wonder’s production is eclipsed by that of fellow Justus League beat makers Nicolay and Khrysis. Over time, there’s something about 9th’s beats that have seemed very recycled these days, and his fellow beat creators have managed to find themselves higher on my top producers list of late.

Nicolay is most notably famous for his ‘Foreign Exchange’ album with Phonte (of LB fame), but the focus of this post is on the music of Khrysis. He has quickly took over 9th Wonder’s spot as the go-to guy for Justus League beats, and has made a lot of the music on Little Brother’s upcoming album apparently. In the past he's also produced Big Rapper Pooh's 'Sleepers'

To showcase his music, I’m going back a few years to an album he produces entirely with his partner in crime Sean Boog in the group The Away Team. Their album ‘National Anthem’ was released to a lot of critical acclaim and here it is for you. The album has that classic Justus League feel to it, with the sound they’re famous for dominating it throughout. The guest rappers are primarily in-house, with Little Brother, Chaundon & Joe Scudda turning in a verse. Smif-N-Wessun also make an appearance on the track ‘Come On Down’.

Sean Boog is a talented rapper and sounds right at home over the backdrops created by Khrysis, and the album is a great listen - possibly one of the best album's released by the whole 'Hall Of Justus' crew so far.

1. And Now Folks2. Competition3. Likka Hi (Last Call)4. Shining5. Come On Down ft. Smif-N-Wessun6. Blah Blah7. So I Tells The Bitch8. Fuck You9. Let Off A Round10. Me And My Fellows11. Make It Hot ft. Phonte & Joe Scudda12. End Of The Day13. Upnatem14. One 'n' Only ft. Percy Miracles15. Always Be Around16. On The Line ft. Joe Scudda, Chaundon, and Big Rapper Pooh

Friday, 13 July 2007

After nearly a month of this blog being up I think its time for a new direction. Except for one album (Esau's debut) all artists and releases on the blog have been from good ol' Blighty. Its time for a change, and from now on I won't be discriminatory against other hip-hop. I've got a lot of material to share with thou over the next however-many posts I will do on here, and I don't want to be tied down to UK rap!!!

I'll be honest, UK rap alone would be enough to keep me writing every couple of days on here for the rest of my life, but with so many great albums coming out across the shore in the US such as Senim Silla's The Name, The Motto, The Outcome, and the blogger's favourite of the year (or so it seems when you scan all the other blogs that pretend to be me) Blue Scholars' Bayani, I'm going to get in on the action and try and comment a bit more on where I think hip-hop is going these days, and what's coming out that makes me either pull a sexface or makes me cringe.

Speaking of which, I think it's important for us all to notice that we're doing good here as a blogging community, and not just passing round files and leeching off sites or stealing from artists. Do you really think as many people would have heard Bayani and seen it for the great album it is without all of us here? I think not, and even though some people would argue that a lot of us won't go out and buy the album, I think that the numbers that the album will get in sales will have increased twofold because of the amount of hype that it has got on the internet.

If we simply uploaded, for example, 50 Cent's Curtis on every blog then that would steal from the artist a lot more (not that I'd give a fuck, that prick deserves to brick), as we could hear that album quite easily and finding it in a record store would hardly take a mystical journey. But us bloggers give lesser known artists a lot more coverage, and don't get paid a penny for it. Us, alone, can make someone's career - because there's so many of us these days we actually have that power. And it feels gooood.

Anyway, onto the drop for today, we have an album that came out in 2001, and is somewhat of a greatest hits compilation for the record company Ill Boogie. It covers the main releases from the underground rap label set up by producer/emcee M-Boogie, and has a great line-up.

The LP starts off with a great song by The Associates produced by Dj Rhettmatic. I actually never even knew Rhettmatic was a producer until this album, but you learn something every day don't you? It also has Iriscience & Babu from Dilated Peoples, both halves of the Cali Agents, Freddie Foxxx, Mykill Myers, Grand Agent, Thes One, Buckshot and M-Boogie himself among others making appearances.

The album was released by GrooveAttack records, and has the same sound to it as some of their other compilations such as the Superrappin series. Enjoy '5'!!

Monday, 9 July 2007

As requested, here's the 90s EP from the british hip-hop outfit that once boasted now-household names such as Skinnyman, Mongo and even Chester P & Farma G from Taskforce.

Bury Crew have also boasted other names such as Ransom Badbones (who you may have noticed starred on the '£10 Bag' series posted last week, and also had rapper Intenz amongst their ranks. Mark B (of New Mic Order/Mark B & Blade fame) produced some of their tracks also.

I'm not entirely sure of the year it was released but at an educated guess I'd say maybe 1996/7. You can recognise the voices of some rappers, definitely Taskforce, on some of the songs, and all in all its a good quality EP. It has four songs on it, with two acapellas and two instrumentals to back them up.

Saturday, 7 July 2007

I mentioned in the Roots Manuva post that my first listening experience of the man was on the song 'Where My Mind Is At' from Skitz' album 'Countryman', and that song still remains, for me, one of his finest songs. Since I started getting into UK Hip-Hop I have acquired quite a lot of vinyl along the way (honestly, it's amazing what you can find in a Huddersfield Open Market or at your local car boot sale). It's also amazing how often you come across old british rap vinyl EPs, and one I found a couple of years back was an early Roots Manuva EP clearly from before his debut album.

It was released by Ronin Records (same record label that released 'Countryman'), and featured the track in question, 'Where My Mind Is At' along with 'Blessed Be The Manner' and a short instrumental called 'Fuck Being Polite'.

The EP is short but even over the three songs here its clear to see how different his material has changed over the years. Its as if his music has become more and more soaked in reggae dub samples and beats, and this EP marks the very start of his musical journey when he dealt with straight rap. A short, but very enjoyable 12".

Friday, 6 July 2007

Roots Manuva is an artist with no comparison. His music is steeped in reggae dub and littered with Jamaican-English slang, but for all of the Jamaican twinged words it is hard to deny the underlying britishness of his songs.

I first heard Roots Manuva on the classic album ‘Countryman’ by DJ legend Skitz, on the track ‘Where My Mind Is At’, and I was instantly drawn in to his deep vocals and strange rhyme style. He almost sounds like one of the old style Reggae emcees from the 70s ad 80s - like a young London kid trying to emulate the likes of Yellowman & Barrington Levy. But its his lyrics that so often get lost in the mix, which is a real shame, as there’s lots of treats to be had in his verses.

His first album, ‘Brand New Second Hand’, actually came out to quite a lot of fanfare in the british underground press, with most reviews pointing to him as the new leader of UK Hip-Hop. The album was awarded with a MOBO award (which one I really don’t know, but I assume it was something like ‘Homegrown Talent’ or ‘Best Newcomer’) and did quite well considering the average sales that british rap albums were getting at the time. It was released in 1999, and was one of the first albums to be released on Big Dada Recordings, and it gained a bit of momentum off the songs ‘Motion 5000’ & ‘Juggle Tings Proper’.

What came next was completely unexpected, however, as Roots Manuva’s second effort was almost heralded as one of the best UK hip-hop albums for a decade. Never since the days of Gunshot, Hi-Jack and early Blade material has british Hip-Hop pointed towards a certain artist as being its frontrunner, but it seemed like this was the case with the release of ‘Run Come Save Me’. One of the main reasons for this was obvious - ‘Witness’.

The song ‘Witness (1 Hope)’ was voted in HHC magazine as being the greatest british hip-hop single of all time, and rightly so, as it was superb. The song’s music was so different to anything else people were rapping over at the time, and it sounds like an old dub instrumental that good ol’ Rodney Smith had found one night sifting through his dad’s old collection. The song even got quite a bit of recognition in the US, earning Roots a feature in The Source (which at the time did at least have some sort of respect still).

The rest of the album was brilliant aswell, with the song ‘Dreamy Days’ being released as another single with success. Even Jurassic 5 member Chali 2NA turned up with a guest verse on the brilliant ‘Join The Dots’.

The album was nominated for a Mercury Music Prize in the UK, which was unheard of for a UK rap artist, putting it up on a pedestal in popular music with major artists such as Radiohead. Since then only Dizzee Rascal has achieved the same feat (I think Dizzee actually won with ‘Boy In Da Corner’, which incidentally, is nothing like the album ‘Run Come Save Me’ was).

Riding the wave of adulation from rags such as NME at the time, Roots Manuva released a follow-up (not really an album) called ‘Dub Come Save Me’, which featured 5 new songs and 5 redub instrumentals of songs from ‘Run Come Save Me’. After this, he took part in the Badmeaningood series, which had a new song by him on it titled ‘Yellow Submarine’. Unfortunately it wasn’t a cover of Ringo Starr & The Beatles’ original, but was entertaining nonetheless.

He did release a newer album called ‘Awfully Deep’ which did fairly well, but failed to continue his run of great albums. It was a decent LP with some great tracks on it like ‘Colossal Insight’ and ‘Too Cold’ but personally I felt that it fell short of his classic second album because it was one of those ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ albums. More of the same.

Roots Manuva hasn’t released much since that album in 2005, other than being involved in the Blacknificent 7 project with the likes of Karl Hinds, Estelle & Seannie T, and taking part in the artist compilation series 'Back To Mine'. He’s a personal favourite of mine and I look forward to his next LP.

Due to the fact that all and sundry will already own his two 'big' albums, I will not be posting 'Run Come Save Me' or 'Awfully Deep'. If you want them you're going to have to buy them, or at least find one of the million download sites you'll be able to get them from. Instead, here are three other releases from the man.

First up, its his debut album 'Brand New Second Hand', the album that helped him garner media attention and turn into the big rap star he is today.

Up next we have the stop gap between his last two albums, 'Dub Come Save Me', which is a mixture of dub instrumentals and brand new songs. 'Revolution 5' contains some guest verses from Jurassic 5 members.

And last but not least, it's his Badmeaningood selection, which is personally picked by the man himself, documenting some songs that have influenced him a lot in his life. Basically, its an opportunity for him to make a mixtape of his own favourite songs for our listening pleasure. It has some fairly interesting choices, and all in all is a good album, including the aforementioned 'Yellow Submarine' track.

Monday, 2 July 2007

In lieu of being energised enough to do a full write-up for these superb compilations, I'm just going to post them up for you to enjoy. DJ Louis Slipperz has released three compilations with UK hip-hop outfit Taskforce, featuring pretty much every big name on the UK Hip Hop circuit.

All three contain of half exclusive material produced by Louis Slipperz & Raw Dog especially for the '£10 Bag' comps, and the other half are big UK tracks out at the time of release. Each acts as a good showcase for the scene, and contain the sort of dark, brooding music that hip-hop music from our shores is often famous for.